Have you ever bought (or consider buying) a cheapo house to do up over time?

Folks, I'm gonna stress this isn't happening at the moment in real life. This is just a bit of day dreaming.


I live in a house estate, urban, all the warts and pimples that go with it. I always say i'd never leave it because it's what i know, but at the same time I love the idea of buying a cheap rural house, working on it over ten years or so, so i have somewhere quiet to get away from here in future (either as a holiday home, or perhaps rent the urban house, or live between both or something).


I've a decent idea in my head of what i'd like to own and what general shape i'd like a rural house to take, but that would involve buying a site, and then a large outlay to get a house built. Whereas a cheap house already on a site will generally work out as a cheaper up-front purchase, and you can tick away at it over time.


Has anyone done it? Or been thinking about it?


For example, I seen this online:


https://bidx1.com/en-ie/auction/property/26025?lotnumber=&keyword=&countyid=31&minprice=0&maxprice=0&AuctionIds=&_v=1


And I'm wondering why it's not already sold, to be honest. At 30k it seems very reasonable for the location and such? Right beside the beach? There's a road to it so presumably no right of way issues or the likes? Getting it water tight would probably not require a massive amount of money (another 20k to replace the roof and stick some cheapo windows on it?) and you have something you can work on (even DIY at that point) for the coming years?


It's interesting.

DubJJ

It hasn't sold already because the auction doesn't finish until the 13/4.
30k is just the reserve

DubJJ

DubJJ wrote: »

It hasn't sold already because the auction doesn't finish until the 13/4.
30k is just the reserve

Ah I see that alright, but it was actually listed as for sale already, by someone else, and as far as I know BidX1 tend to piggyback stuff that isn't selling and try to auction it on instead.

It wasn't REA or DNG but it was definitely for sale by a non BidX1 company.

fritzelly

Reality is you think you are getting a bargain with an almost ready house but likely end up spending more than if you just built it from scrach
It looks in bits and is probably a demolish/rebuild - you are just paying for the land in the end
Exposed roof timbers etc are probably no good anymore etc etc

10pennymixup

Nothing wrong with trying to live the dream and buying something to do up over time but you always need to put on the thinking hat and source the right property, or your dream can become a nightmare.

Have you read the legal pack? I wonder what is meant by "Please note that the contract for sale has been revised. Documents 2.2 – 2.4 have been added to the Documents Schedule and Special Condition 6 b) has been included."

Have you done a planning search? A very large property on what looks to be a small site. Might have been an old abandoned farm house that some one tried to put a large extension to, that the close neighbours and LA are not happy about.

You could end up paying a lot of money to solicitors and planning consultants before even thinking about construction costs.

Not being harsh but there is always a reason why property appears cheap and EA's are just looking for that one dreamer not to realize why. And at an auction, all bids are final.

I should probably just clarify something; I'm not sitting here with a deposit waiting to buy the house that I linked to in the first post.

I'm just more wondering in general if m/any on here may have done this before or how it turned out. I think it's a great idea, and I love the idea of having somewhere to retreat to in ten years time if the want arises (or somewhere i can sell if something goes wrong financially), but Im sure it has it's drawbacks.

I'd love to know of someone who did it and what they thought of it (would they advise it, do it again, biggest mistake of their life, etc.)

the_syco

I picked Donegal as it's far up there.

€38k http://www.daft.ie/11682821
Utterly pointless.
Keep the walls if possible, and put a bedroom and bathroom in the attic space. A road going to it would probably kill off your finances, as it looks like it opens up to a field.

€48k http://www.daft.ie/11682808
https://goo.gl/maps/B3eJpf2ZpA22
Electricity, someone lived there somewhat recently, so probably some soft of sanitation in place; wouldn't leave anything of value there, but it could be a nice place if you like your peace and quite.

€39,500 http://www.daft.ie/11667331
It's on an island. Which means if you like your fishing, it may not be a bad spot. Decent bit of land, but I'd say ignore, as it looks like someone has already tried to do the place up, but being on an island, you'd have to ferry most of your supplies out, which can't be cheap.

€37,500 http://www.daft.ie/11508935
Looks fcuked, would avoid.

€30k http://www.daft.ie/11001089
https://goo.gl/maps/XwhdkKbyhR52
Gaeltacht area, so possible grants. Other than that, avoid. Looks pointless sinking money into it, especially as there are other houses so close by.

30k http://www.daft.ie/1947631
https://goo.gl/maps/EHcry4HxVWS2
Perhaps nice when the trees were there?
The crazy thing is that the front in the Daft picture looks waaay different to the picture from Google. Really odd.

With the picture from Google; yup, with the picture from Daft, nope. Close to the border.

=-=

If I was buying a fixer upper, I'd be buying an existing shell, not too far from the shops/pub, but not in an estate next to other people, and which had electricity to it (needed for the power tools).

Option 2 is probably the best yet, and it looks like that there was a road once upon a time to it, so that may not be too costly to drop stone on top of.

It's also near shops, and has houses nearby, but not on your doorstep. If you're knee deep in the city, this may be nice to relax at.

I suppose it comes down to one question KKV; do you want your holiday home to be near other people?

Panjandrums

This post has been deleted.

Thespoofer

I've done it ( still am) after x3 years.
I had a few quid put away from the last boom ( really worked my ass off) and bought a small cottage on half an acre for cash about 4 years ago. I extended it, refurbished the whole inside, new insulation and plaster all round outside, all new roof, plumbing, electrics, flooring and so on.

My plan in the beginning was to ' pay as I go', to buy materials from my wage (I work for someone else in construction) and do it bit by bit.
I'll be honest it's very tough, especially when doing a lot of work yourself and we sacrificed the last few years weekends, holidays, breaks etc but now I'm almost there ( couple of months we can live in it comfortably) it is worth it but takes huge commitment, especially if you have a full time job to do outside that.
I see this going on more and more, people trying not to use a bank mortgage.

davo10

I've done this a number of times, don't do it unless you know exactly what you are getting yourself into, and have surplus cash to cover what will be an overspend.

Fixing up unfinished and particularly old house is always more expensive than you plan for, once you start, you will find additional problems with electrics/plumbing/water/sewage/roof etc. I use experienced engineers and contractors, and I still get calls saying "we just found this". So have a contingency budget.

Buying at auction is not for the feint hearted or the uninformed. You could get a bargain or you could get a ruin, either way it belongs to you when that hammer drops. What can seem a peaceful retreat now, can become isolation and difficult to sell later, so when buying ask yourself how easy it will be to sell later and if it would appeal to the wider public or would it only interest a niche subset.

JimmyMW

Deleted User wrote: »

I've a decent idea in my head of what i'd like to own and what general shape i'd like a rural house to take, but that would involve buying a site, and then a large outlay to get a house built. Whereas a cheap house already on a site will generally work out as a cheaper up-front purchase, and you can tick away at it over time.


Has anyone done it? Or been thinking about it?


For example, I seen this online:


https://bidx1.com/en-ie/auction/property/26025?lotnumber=&keyword=&countyid=31&minprice=0&maxprice=0&AuctionIds=&_v=1

Your biggest issue will be planning, for the site route which you mentioned above, you most likely will not satisfy the local needs requirement in any rural area to get planning in the first place. Additionally the property in the link you provided is an incomplete shell, therefore the new purchaser may need to apply for planning to complete, again you will most likely not satisfy the local needs requirement.

If one was to do what your suggesting, its best to find a property which has had someone living it recently which requires upgrading not completing or rebuilding.